the archives

he certainly should have done

Someone else said that he died of cirrhosis of the liver, the condition all poets kid one another about but never develop. I thought of checking that out, and then thought again. It seemed too apt, too poetic, to research into error. So let’s just say that, and leave it there. Let’s say he died of cirrhosis of the liver, and that if he didn’t he certainly should have done.

– “Youre Not The Outlaw You Think You Are,” Conor O’Callaghan eulogizing Michael Hartnett in the July/August 09 POETRY